Cannabis crime gang member made £200k – but just has to pay back £1,980

A member of a crime gang that brought a £1 million cannabis haul into Peterhead amassed more than £200,000 from his life of crime.

Prosecutors say Justas Brazinskas, 26, made a total of £204,140 from being involved in drug smuggling.

But following a short hearing at the High Court in Edinburgh today, Brazinksas agreed to hand over just £1,980 to Crown lawyers.

The Lithuanian citizen was taken to court by prosecutors using proceeds of crime legislation.

He was given a three-years-and-four-month prison sentence following proceedings at the High Court in Stirling earlier this year. 

Brazinskas and his fellow countrymen, Romualdas Galdikas, Arturas Litkinas, and Tadas Jurjonas, were caught after a series of raids on addresses in Peterhead last year.

Galdikas, 43, was jailed for two years while 32-year-old dad Litkinas was sentenced to two years and eight months.

Jurjonas, 45, who has an 18-year-old daughter, was given a two-year-and-eight-month term.

The court heard how the wholesale cost of the cannabis was about £300,000, but police said that its street value would have exceeded £1 million.

The four, whose addresses were all given as Peterhead, appeared for sentence at the High Court in Stirling earlier this month.

The quartet had pleaded guilty at the High Court in Glasgow in February to being concerned in the supply of cannabis.

The court heard they had all come to the UK since 2020 with plans to work in the construction, fish processing, and transport fields before becoming involved in cultivating and trafficking cannabis.

Prosecutor Bill McVicar said the gang had been involved in “a large-scale, sophisticated and high-valued organised crime venture”.

He said: “It was operated by a group from Lithuania, who came to Peterhead to participate in cannabis cultivation and supply with a substantial street value.”

The four were soon identified as gang members by detectives and surveillance was carried out between January and March 2021.

Police kept watch on a number of properties in the Aberdeenshire town which had been converted into drug factories and used to produce “multi-kilogram” hauls of cannabis.

Officers from Police Scotland’s Organised Crime and Counter Terrorism Unit conducted the raids.

Hundreds of cannabis plants found in car

Galdikas, Brazinskas and Jurjonas were all arrested at properties in the town, where drugs and cash were also seized.

The court heard Litinkas had 300 cannabis plants in his Vauxhall Insignia car when he was stopped on the A90 at Stracathro, Angus.

Police also found a notepad which appeared to have instructions on temperature for growing the drug.

Passing sentence, judge Lord Mulholland told the quartet that jail was the only sentence available to him.

He added: “You all came to this country and instead of working hard and taking advantage of the opportunities afforded to you, you engaged in criminal activity, growing and trafficking a controlled drug.

“This is a criminal offence in this country, as it is in your own, and you did this for profit.”

On Monday, Brazinskas was given six months to hand the sum over to the sheriff clerk’s office at Glasgow Sheriff Court by Lord Mulholland.

Brazinskas’s lawyers and prosecutors agreed that he only had the sum available at this point in time.

However, the Crown can return to court if it discovers that Brazinskas has any more assets available.

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